


Show & Tell

by Astrumiel



Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate take on Miami in Crash & Burn, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Rare Pairings, future Preston & Liam, future relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:21:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23090044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astrumiel/pseuds/Astrumiel
Summary: This idea came about a few years ago when Steph and I decided that maybe like a lot of C&R characters, Preston deserved to make it out alive, and Liam a chance to redeem himself and find someone who fits into his life.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Show & Tell

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came about a few years ago when Steph and I decided that maybe like a lot of C&R characters, Preston deserved to make it out alive, and Liam a chance to redeem himself and find someone who fits into his life.

All that really registered was the muzzle of the gun pointing to his head and a faint ‘click’ of the trigger before the bullet left the barrel and fractions of a second later found its mark. It wasn’t supposed to hurt like this was it? Bullet to the head shouldn’t hurt this much unless this was already death. The pain spread down from impact point to his neck then everything went icy paralyzing black.

The floor under him shook making his ears ring; he realized belatedly that there must have been a noise to have done that. Now the paralyzing iciness was being quickly replaced by heat, the wicked hot smothering kind. He opened his eyes to see flames rising like cathedral pillars and black smoke created the cavernous dome above.

“That bastard preacher was right . . . dammit.” He thought the bullet had sent him straight to hell like the filthy bastard had warned him he would. Seeing as he had been the first man Preston had killed he didn’t particularly enjoy proving the arse right but then he hadn’t believed in Hell at the time or Heaven for that matter.

His head still hurt from the wound that killed him and his neck felt stiff, and all around him, the scorching heat grew with every passing second. He tried to move but it was like running in a nightmare, his limbs were too slow, too heavy to do what he wanted them to do.

A movement unlike that of the erratic and chaotic fire registered in front of him, there was another being, another person there with him, if he tried to speak Preston couldn’t hear him over all the ringing in his ears. With an effort, he moved his head to look at the other figure. It swam in and out of fuzzy focus for a moment before he realized who he was seeing, striking blue eyes looking down at him with worry and pain. In a blink, they hardened to something else, like he was trying to hide his emotions.

“No, you’re not supposed to be here.“ He thought as the ringing began to fade from his ears replaced by the crackling hiss of the fire around them. Liam Bell was crouched beside him still a bit bloody, with soot smeared across one cheek and matted into his hair.

“C’mon you Bristol bastard get up before this place comes crashing down on us!” Liam yelled putting one arm around him to help him stand with no avail.

He wanted to point out that there was no escaping this but all that he could think right then was how unfair it was that Liam had ended up here. He might have deserved this but not Liam unless he was simply hallucinating him. “It’s Hell.” Is all he managed to say.

“It’s the cartel what did you expect?” Liam asked, sounding immensely frustrated and angry. After a beat, he realized what Preston had meant.

“You’re not dead yet idiot but we need to move or we both will be, your old pal Cross went literally ballistic when he thought they killed you.” His hand went to Preston’s neck and with a slight pinch he pulled out a little dart.

“We tranquilized you when the cartel goon shot you and swapped a few bullets for blanks. Though that’s still gonna bruise like a motherfucker.” He said to Preston showing him the tiny dart, small enough that if you didn’t know it was there you could have easily missed it, then glancing up to the place where the fake bullet did some close-range damage. 

“Can you move at all?” He asked then without waiting for an answer began to reach for his arm to help him up. He abandoned the idea of helping Preston stand in favor of picking him up like he would a fallen brother in arms and began to carry him out. Somewhere between there and the exit of the burning de la Vega house Preston’s world faded to quiet black again. The pain faded with everything else after a while all he could hear was the distant beat of a heart. 

Rachel’s waiting outside for them, doors to the black hummer are open. There’s a smidge of hesitance as he hands the man over to her. She’s had paramedic training, which is more than Liam can say for himself but for some reason he would have much rather have had Doc here with him. There’s another thing he would have to fix, after all, he’d done to the Sidewinder boys he needed to set things right. Despite how he had acted he knew it would haunt him until he set things right. With a glance at the car, he walked over to the passenger window where Adam sat waiting. 

“You two take off, there’s some things I need to take care of first.” There were people he needed to apologize to, records to fake and trails to bury. 

“What about you?” Adam asked calmly. Liam glanced at both of them, whether they were siblings, partners or lovers he couldn’t really tell, nor cared at this point. He’d known them for years and all that mattered now was that he could trust them with getting their injured man off the grid. 

“I’ll meet up with you when I’m done.” He said exhaustion starting to settle in his bones. “Get him to a doctor. Hushed.” He ordered then walked away hitting the car with the back of his hand twice as he did, listening to the sound of the engine fade away as he walked in the opposite direction. 

For a long time, there was nothing, nothing but a humm in the background of a vast black landscape. The first thing he heard after a long while of silence was a soft voice asking questions he couldn’t make out. On occasion, he could feel the air around him warm or cool and slight pressure in his arm before everything went black and silent again. 

Silence.

Silence. 

Then. . .

“I’ll take him somewhere safe,” the voice started to fade, Preston grasped at it focusing on it like it could pull him out of the dark. “. . . said there could be some long term damage.” Whoever was speaking paused, for a horrible second he thought he was alone in the dark again, then softly. “I know a place, you two can take off now if you’d like . . . and thank you.”

The last bit was spoken so softly that he didn’t really notice he had lost his grip on it and the world faded back to a quiet steady humm before it was back to silence, silence, silence. 

He couldn’t risk putting Preston in the hospital, even with a fake name someone might recognize him, alert the CIA to his whereabouts and they’d come after him before the doctors even had a chance to admit him into the place. Liam wasn’t risking it. 

What he was doing was worlds stupider and entirely out of his comfort zone and skillset but he had made the decision to help this man and he was going to see it through to the end. 

“First step towards redemption.” He thought, or at least towards trying to make up for all that he had messed up. Redemption was a long way off if it was even possible for him at all. They had already moved him to a safer place, a house far out of the way, actually, that part had been Liam’s idea alone. After three days of intensive care, the doctor they had been paying off finally agreed to release Preston into Liam’s care. With a mile-long list of instructions and warnings that if anything seemed off, he would need to call him immediately.


End file.
